It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade, old landmarks crumble and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.

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What Sacrifice?

Standing up for the idea that it’s OK for kids to be exposed to images of torture, mutilation, death and cannibalism, but NOT OK for kids to be exposed to the notion of two men who love one another, Anonymous writes:

I know the hooror. How dare they teach those children hw to have everlasting life! How dare they teach children what the cost of their sin was! How dare they tell children the truth about the nature of God and what he sacraficed for us! It would make much more sense if they simplt let the kids burn in hell….

What did God sacrifice for us? You know, in the story in the Bible. What did he sacrifice that was so unusual? What sacrifice of God’s was so big as to strike us with awe and admiration?

What, that he sacrificed His Only Son?

What kind of sacrifice of His Only Son was so awesomely big that we should especially remember it more than two thousand years later in respect and reverence?

Was Jesus’ torture God’s sacrifice? In the Bible story, God’s son Jesus has to go through a few hours — certainly less than a day — of beatings and torture before he’s killed. Since the time of the Bible story millions of people have been tortured for far longer than that. Don’t get me wrong… I wouldn’t want to be beaten and crucified for five minutes, much less five hours. But Jesus’ torture in the Bible story is really not so amazingly remarkable in the face of the real torture suffered by so many actual humans.

Was Jesus’ death God’s sacrifice? In the Bible story, Jesus died all right… for three days and three nights. But hang on, then he gets resurrected! More than that, he gets this big, special starring role in the second coming, and then he gets to rule the Earth for a thousand years, and so on and so forth. When my son dies, he has to stay dead until the LAST DAY, even if the story of the Bible is true. Everybody on Earth has to die. Jesus gets the luxury version of death, with benefits!

I simply don’t understand how God’s sacrifice of having his only son be tortured for a shorter time than millions have been, and then having his son be dead for a shorter time than the billions of the rest of us, with extra benefits afterward, makes for the sort of ginormous, jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring sacrifice that must be acknowledged with bowed head and whispered voice and other postures of the supremely amazed.

1 comment to What Sacrifice?

Isn’t that the message of the “Garden of Eden”? Eat this apple and have the knowledge of good v evil vs. Don’t eat this apple and have no knowledge of good v evil. Some would say the Bible tells us to be ignorant.

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